1. Field of the Invention
The present invention set forth in claims of the present application relates to an information reproducing apparatus which carries out an operation to implement a theft preventive effect when reading out signals stored in a recording medium and reproducing information based on the signals read out.
2. Description of the Related Art
As to an information reproducing apparatus such as audio equipments or the like for reproducing audio information from signals recorded in a compact disc (hereinafter referred to as CD) which is one of information recording media, in particular, when it is portable of a compact and light-weighted type, or a on-vehicle use, there is a problem that it often becomes a target of theft. Therefore, it is proposed to disable the information reproducing apparatus to carry out its normal reproducing operation once it is stolen and/or removed by impairing its proper use so as to prevent theft. As such a theft prevention scheme of related art, there are proposed such information reproducing apparatus that has a removable part, or such one that requires a use of a pass word, or the like.
In the theft preventive scheme to be implemented by removing a part of the information reproducing apparatus, it is arranged, for example, such that a part or the whole of an operating section of the information reproducing apparatus is secured readily removable, thereby, when an authorized user does not use this information reproducing apparatus, the whole portion or a part of the operating section thereof is removed. Thereby, no one other than the authorized user who carries on the whole or the part of the operating section removed therefrom is allowed appropriately to use the information reproducing apparatus, as a result, a chance of a theft can be minimized.
Further, as for the theft preventive measure based on the use of a pass word, once an authorized user of the information reproducing apparatus completes registration of a pass word specified in advance via an input operating unit of the information reproducing apparatus, in the afterward, every time the authorized user wishes to use the apparatus, an input of the pass word via the input operating section is required. When the pass word is inputted via the input operation section, the inputted pass word is checked with a registered ID code, and consequently only when the inputted pass word is recognized to match with the registered ID code, the information reproducing apparatus is allowed to carry out a normal information reproducing operation. As a result, those who do not know the registered pass word, that is, any one other than the authorized user is not allowed to use the information reproducing apparatus, thereby preventing theft of the information reproducing apparatus.
However, in the case where the theft preventive measure is adopted by allowing a part of the information reproducing apparatus to be removed, for example, allowing to remove the whole or a part of the operation section thereof, there is such a problem that an authorized user may forget to remove the whole or the part of the operating section therefrom. In addition, it is difficult to find a replacement for such removed parts in the market, therefore, the removal of the whole or the part of the operating section from the information reproducing apparatus is considered not so effective for prevention of theft. Therefore, the case of the theft preventive measures based on the pass word may be considered more effective for prevention of theft than the case based on the removal of the part of the information reproducing apparatus in view of that the authorized user will be only person who would know the pass word. However, even in this case, what is likely to happen is that the authorized user may forget such a pass word, making it difficult even for the authorized user to appropriately use the information reproducing apparatus for reproducing information.
In contrast to the aforementioned theft preventive countermeasures, for an information reproducing apparatus such as an audio equipment for reproducing data recorded in a disc-like recording medium such as a CD, DVD (digital versatile disc), MD and the like, there is proposed a security system for preventing theft of the audio equipment by utilizing a data recorded in the disc-like recording medium, whereby the authorized user is no more required to memorize the pass word (for example, see Japanese Patent Publication No. 2566117).
The aforementioned security system already proposed can prevent a theft of audio equipment in which, for example, a mini disc is used, by utilizing a table-of-contents (hereinafter referred to as TOC) data which is recorded in the mini disc as a unique data thereof. In this type of the security system, a particular mini disc selected by the user of the audio equipment is specified as an ID disc for identification, and TOC data recorded in this ID disc is stored in a built-in memory in the audio equipment as an ID data. Next, if the audio equipment is disconnected from a battery of an original vehicle on which it is mounted, and connected to another battery of another vehicle, there occurs a fluctuation in its power voltage depending on a battery voltage, this fluctuation in the power voltage is sensed, and in response to this sensing, the audio equipment is set to an inoperable status.
This inoperable status of the audio equipment will be cancelled when the mini disc specified as an ID disc is loaded in the audio equipment, TOC data recorded therein is compared with an ID data stored in the built-in memory of the audio equipment, and the TOC data and the ID data are verified to match. By the way, in case the mini disc selected as the ID disc is such one in which a recorded TOC data is rewritable, it is arranged not to allow this TOC data to be stored in memory as an ID data, for avoiding its use as the ID disc.